In that rather grim concept comedy of 1986 "Ruthless People." Bette Midler is abducted and held to ransom to the delight of her husband, Danny DeVito, who, hardly believing his luck, refuses to pay as the abductors discount Midler until she has the only funny line: "I’ve been kidnapped by K-Mart!"
What a prophetic line that turned out to be. As most forms of popular entertainment flop or underperform, the celebrity has had to find alternative sources of income. What is so extraordinary is the number of celebrities pushing products, often several simultaneously, like Scarlett Johansson who sells everything but cinema tickets. Advertisements like these were once confined to the Japanese market and contractually quarantined from our prying eyes.
It can’t be a coincidence that Julia Roberts has opted for the easy money of Lancôme just as her films tank. Kate Winslet has joined her, a very fine actress but who has not had a hit since "Titanic." Lancôme always had a fairly prominent advertising but not Hollywood on this scale. But isn’t there a glaring contradiction in actresses complaining about the lack of good roles or the abundance of stereotypical scripts, then peddling face cream? Isn’t that a step backwards? There’s also the hilarious case of Charlize Theron, who managed to get herself sued for confusing her endorsements.
But the grand prize for hypocrisy must go to George Clooney, who has got himself an awful lot of column inches through his "commitment" to development and human right issues while promoting Nespresso from Nestle -- a company that has been the target of one of the longest and most impassioned boycotts for decades.
More recently Jennifer Aniston plugged SmartWater, which I had noticed she often carried when being photographed. Ah, silly me -- she’s an investor! Incidentally Aniston is selling her house; I know this because she is participating in another celebrity ploy that has gone viral -- the manufactured property scoop.
Where once a financial transaction like a house sale was completed as discreetly as possible, now an increasing number of celebrity sellers are happy to play along with the celebrity chroniclers to flush out a starstruck buyer.
The money, apparently, is greater than any risk of stalkers, crazy fans, burglars or even basic issues of privacy (the houses may be empty, but the principle remains). If you want to us tell us what you’re selling and for how much, don’t whine when we want to know what you bought, where, and for how much. And if you can keep a guestbook for overnight guests it would save us have to trawl websites for details of liaisons at said properties. We, the public, don’t come with a remote control.
Of course sometimes unemployed celebrities use their time to maintain their profile by selling their moral superiority. I recall seeing Demi Moore nailing her colors to the pink ribbon breast cancer charity some time before appearing
